Marijuana trafficking organization had Riverside County ties

This property on Menifee Road in Menifee was used as a "stash house" for an extensive marijuana-growing operation on public lands in Riverside and San Diego counties, according to officials with the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego.

Drug agents spent hundreds of hours listening to phone conversations peppered with code words and tracking the movements of a handful of Riverside County residents now charged in what federal authorities describe as an extensive marijuana growing operation on public lands.

The two-year investigation was disclosed last week after a task force of local, state and federal law enforcement officers arrested six of 10 defendants now facing federal drug charges. Agents searched 15 locations in Riverside and San Diego counties, seizing guns, $237,000 in cash and 300 pounds of marijuana, according to officials from the U.S. attorneyâs office in San Diego.

Though most of the eight marijuana-growing sites were in remote areas of northeastern San Diego County, much of the drug-trafficking organizationâs activities took place in Riverside County. There was a Menifee âstash house,â for instance, and a Perris barbershop served as the money drop location, federal court records say. A supply boss who lived in Temecula shopped at stores around town for the extensive provisions needed to support the organizationâs large-scale marijuana farms on state and federal lands.

At least eight of the defendants lived in Riverside County â" in Perris, Temecula, Aguanga, Hemet and Menifee.

Officials believe the defendants are part of a much larger criminal operation based in Mexico. According to court documents, the drug trafficking operation used undocumented workers smuggled into the United States to tend to the marijuana crops.

The investigation began in the summer of 2010 when drug agents on routine aerial surveillance spotted a remote marijuana farm in the Laguna Mountains near Julian. Authorities raided the site and arrested four people, including a Hemet resident. On his cell phone, investigators discovered a phone number that provided the first link to key figures in the organization.

On wiretaps of 14 phones, from June through November, drug agents listened to the defendantsâ panicked conversations about recent raids by drug agents, federal court records say. They also monitored discussions about sightings of hovering helicopters over growing sites, efforts to avoid Border Patrol âgreen vestsâ and the difficulties of carting large amounts of supplies into the wilderness undetected. They referred to marijuana plants using code words such as âgirlsâ or âanimals.â

In conversations this summer about a grow near Julian, authorities listened to Roberto Valencia-Martinez, 37, of Perris, complain that new workers had been too slow getting out of the vehicle during an early-morning drop-off near the site. Authorities said Valencia-Martinez works for a mobile detailing business whose vans were seen resupplying marijuana growing sites.

After the grow was raided in September, authorities listened to the defendants discuss how they would locate the workers who scattered from the site.

Daniel Malaquias-Mendoza, 33, of Perris, who is being held at a federal detention center in San Diego, is described by federal officials as a high-level manager in the drug-trafficking organization. Court documents say he is believed to report directly to the bosses in Mexico and maintained a stash house on Menifee Road north of Scott Road in Menifee, federal court records say.

His brother, Miguel Angel Mendoza-Mendoza, 26, described as a mid-level manager, owns and operates a barbershop â" Cuts Plus â" on East 4th Street in Perris, which authorities allege was used as a drop location for money to be distributed to the members of the organization.

Court documents say he coordinated the transportation of the marijuana from growing sites to stash locations and ultimately to buyers.

On Friday afternoon, Nov. 16, the barber shop was open for business and filled with customers. A woman who identified herself as Mendozaâs girlfriend referred questions to Los Angeles defense attorney Austin Dove. Reached by phone, Dove declined to comment.

David Chavez-Garduno, of Temecula, who was still at large, is described in federal court documents as the organizationâs supply boss.

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